See how colleges and universities can give every student realistic, repeatable practice for interviews, presentations, and difficult conversations. This live Ovation demonstration features responsive AI avatars, customizable scenarios, personalized feedback, expanded access, and clearer insights into learner participation and progress.

Before students interview for their first professional role, present to a room, counsel a client, defend an idea, or lead a difficult workplace conversation, they need a place to practice.

Providing that practice consistently is difficult. Peer role-play can be too easy, individual coaching is difficult to scale, and large or online courses often limit repetition and feedback.

Ovation is an AI-powered communication simulator that can be used across any program or department. Learners can practice with Ovation at the level of immersion that works for them. Instructors create realistic situations aligned to course goals, define the background and behavior of the avatars, and choose the communication skills to evaluate. Students complete the assignments, then review recordings, transcripts, delivery metrics, and personalized coaching. Educators can assign scenarios, monitor participation, and examine progress over time.

This live demonstration will introduce Ovation to newcomers while showing returning attendees how the platform has expanded since 2025. Browser access now extends practice to computers, smartphones, and tablets, alongside native applications for Mac, Windows, and Meta Quest. New venues, more diverse avatars, additional scenarios, and simpler assignment creation broaden the use cases and make implementation easier to scale.

During the session, we’ll turn a higher-education learning objective into a working simulation: build the scenario, configure the virtual characters, identify the target skills, and demonstrate the learner experience.

We’ll then examine the results from three perspectives:

The student: What happened, what did the feedback reveal, and what should be practiced next?

The educator: How can the scenario and evaluation criteria align with a course, assignment, or competency?

The institution: How can realistic practice scale across courses, communication centers, career services, and professional programs?

Attendees will leave with concrete use cases and a practical way to evaluate simulation based on authenticity, repeatability, educator control, and evidence of growth.

The goal is straightforward: give more students meaningful opportunities to practice the conversations their courses, careers, and communities will require, before the stakes are real.

Jeff Marshall

Founder/CEO at VRSpeaking LLC

Jeff Marshall leads Ovation, a pioneering VR+AI speaking simulator founded in 2016 that combines realistic avatars, AI-powered dialogue, and AI-generated feedback. Ovation empowers users to master diverse communication scenarios, from speeches to interviews, significantly enhancing confidence and communication skills beyond traditional methods. Jeff strongly advocates immersive, AI-driven rehearsal as transformative training for educational institutions and corporate environments.

A prominent voice for the positive impact of virtual reality and artificial intelligence in education and employee training, Jeff has spoken extensively since VR's emergence in 2012. He regularly addresses universities, corporations, and conferences on leveraging VR and related technologies to differentiate themselves and proactively benefit from the rapidly evolving technological landscape.

Prior to founding Ovation, Jeff developed internal VR training and data visualization applications at Bloomberg LP, speaking frequently about integrating VR into various departmental workflows. In 2015, he presented at the Bloomberg Tech Conference, where he first outlined his vision for a virtual reality-based public speaking trainer.